1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a smear resistant thermally reactive material, and more specifically, it relates to a crosslinking polymer having a first coating and a second coating which is thermally reactive with the first coating in order to provide a resultant coating having a cohesive strength that inhibits smearing of the resultant coating.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of product labeling, it has been common practice to apply product information, such as content, weight, price and the like, to a product label by means of a printing apparatus utilizing ink or ink ribbons. It is further common practice to print machine readable indicia, such as a bar code, on the product label by means of a conventional ink printing apparatus, such as a thermal printer. The product labels are then attached to the product or to the product packaging.
During the course of a normal business day, a customer may handle the product label in order to inspect the price, for example. It is not uncommon that the bar code or other product information printed on the product label becomes smeared or scratched as a result of such handling. The bar code on the product label may also become scratched or smeared when an operator at a point of sale ("POS") terminal scans the bar code. This typically occurs when the operator uses a wand scanner to scan the bar code, or the operator tries to scan the product label by dragging the product across an optical scanner located in a checkout counter of the POS terminal. Once the bar code or other product information is scratched or smeared, it becomes difficult or sometimes impossible to scan. The operator is then forced to either manually look up the price of the product in a price manual or check the price of the product by going to the location in the store where the product is displayed and verifying the price. This leads to undesirable results, such as downtime in the POS terminal and customer dissatisfaction. These results can be expensive and can cause the store to become non-competitive.